Re: Colour Gradients

["w robertson cairnwater co uk" <w robertson cairnwater co uk>]

Hi Steffen,

Thanks very much - I'll give InkScape a try for this and let you know how I
get on. Would it be possible at all to add the colour gradients to user
defined shapes using InkScape or by editing the XML in the .shape file
manually then use these shapes (complete with gradients) in diagrams?

> If you're on Linux, you may be able to embed SVGs with colour gradients.

Unfortunately, the editing of the diagrams will mostly be done on a Windows
or Mac machine and the finished diagrams will go on a web based system
which will have to work on multiple browsers on Linux, Windows and Mac.

Thanks again,

Will

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Steffen Macke sdteffen gmail com
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:03:00 -0800
To: w robertson cairnwater co uk
Subject: Re: Colour Gradients


Hi Will,

> This approach works but I think it has the drawback that it can't be
> applied to existing shapes (for example we might want to use shapes from
> the ChemEngineering sheet or custom shapes which do not have a background
> specified in their shape file and set their background to a colour
gradient
> suitable for a particular diagram). I could be wrong in this though.

Agreed. But plain shapes on a colour gradient background also look good.

Another possibilty comes to my mind: Do you basic drawing in Dia, export as
SVG
and add the gradients in Inkscape (I'm not sure if this is feasible for
you).

> Bitmap colour gradients don't scale so well but hopefully that's not a big
> drawback for most applications. I was also keen to try to stick to vector
> graphics and try to minimise use of bitmaps if possible to keep the vector
> graphic files as 'clean' as possible.

As long as you generate the initial gradients in a size that is
sufficient for the largest final output,
this shouldn't be too difficult. If in doubt, give it some pixels more.

If you're on Linux, you may be able to embed SVGs with colour gradients.

Regards,

Steffen


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